Iggy Pop was born as James Jewell Osterberg, Jr. in Muskegon, Michigan. He took the name "Iggy Pop" at the age of 19 after beginning his career in music: Iggy after The Iguanas (his first band) and Pop after Jim Popp, a friend. Osterburg shaved his eyebrows for a show, which apparently made him resemble Jim Popp, who had recently had chemotherapy.

He was the central figure of the seminal punk rock band formed in Ann Arbor in 1967 that was eventually called "The Stooges." Pop would later go solo, working with such talent as David Bowie (the husband of Star Trek actress Iman) before scoring a US Top 40 hit in a 1991 duet with the B-52's Kate Pierson and the song "Candy".